MILLENNIALS DEVOUR THE RIO OLYMPIC GAMES

Nearly 5 Times as Many Millennials Watched Primetime Olympics on NBC than Watched Primetime during TV Season

NBC Olympics’ Rio Coverage on Facebook, Snapchat, and Google/YouTube Engaged with an Audience Predominantly Under Age 35

NBC Olympics Ranked #1 Sports Brand & #1 Consumer Brand for Social Engagement During the Games

RIO DE JANEIRO – August 23, 2016 – Whether it was watching Usain Bolt in primetime, streaming Simone Biles on the NBC Sports app, interacting with Michael Phelps on Facebook Live, or watching the highlight of Neymar’s game-winning goal in the men’s soccer final on NBC Olympics’ Snapchat Discover channel, one thing is clear: Millennials love the Olympics.

Video consumption of Rio 2016 by the advertiser-coveted demographic across NBC Olympics’ TV screens, digital platforms, and social media set records, according to research conducted by NBC, Facebook, Snapchat, Google/YouTube, Shareablee, and The Nielsen Company.

The audience for NBC’s primetime Olympics presentation had a far larger proportion of millennial viewers than the 2015-16 primetime TV season. Nearly five times (382% higher) as many Adults 18-34 watched the Rio Olympics in primetime (5.3 rating) than watched on the four broadcast networks (1.1 average rating). That compares favorably to the Olympics advantage over the TV season among Adults 35-49 (+336% Olympics advantage over primetime season) and Adults 50+ (+223%). NBC’s 5.3 rating for P18-34 during the Games was equal to the next 22 networks combined (based on data currently available, through Aug. 18).

“There is no event that aggregates audiences on such a massive scale for so long and across as many platforms as the Olympics, and that includes young people,” said Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBC Sports Group. “Our research shows and the audience consumption proves that Millennials were highly interested, enthusiastic and engaged in the Rio Olympics.”

In addition to the nearly 200 million viewers on NBC’s 11 English and Spanish language linear channels carrying coverage of the Rio Games, nearly 50 million viewers streamed 3.4 billion minutes of NBC’s Rio coverage on web, mobile, and connected devices, with more than half of those viewers under the age of 35. And more than two-thirds of the viewers of NBC Olympics’ highlights on Facebook, Snapchat and Google/Youtube were under the age of 35, leading to millions of referrals to NBC’s video coverage across all screens.

“‘Television’ is no longer just a piece of hardware propped up on a table or hanging on a wall. Rather, ‘television’ is now a video stream — and in the case of the Olympics, a world-class NBC-produced video stream — delivered to any screen capable of rendering it,” said Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics. “America’s Millennial audience is watching television across multiple screens, supplemented and fueled by their social engagement, which in the case of Rio 2016, reached new heights across multiple platforms.”

Research conducted for NBC Research during the Games by Shareablee said that Millennials who watched Olympic highlights on social media that day were significantly more likely to watch both NBC’s primetime coverage on television and stream NBC’s digital content that evening.

NBC Olympics’ own social media platforms capitalized on the unique access to venues, athletes, and commentators afforded to the exclusive U.S. media rights holder by producing unique content that generated enough traffic to rank #1 among sports brands and among all brands for digital engagement during the Games.

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Following are Millennial and social media highlights for NBC Olympics and some of its social media partnerships.

NBC OLYMPICS DIGITAL

More than half of those streaming NBC Olympics’ digital video content were under age 35.

There were 100M uniques and 222M visits, up +29% and +44%, respectively, over the London 2012.

A total of 2.71 billion live minutes of coverage streamed – more than 12.5 times the live minutes streamed for the 2015 Super Bowl, and more than 1.2 billion minutes more than the live stream totals for every previous Olympics combined.

FACEBOOK

More than 160 Million users reached with Olympic content; nearly 70 million aged 18-34

P18-34 have engaged with Olympic content at an extremely high rate, with nearly 50% liking, sharing, or commenting on posts.

More than 600 Million video views of NBC Olympics Facebook video.

NBC has nearly 160 Facebook Lives with 39 hours of Live programming and 3.5 million+ Live Viewers

Over 2000+ posts were made on the NBC Olympics Facebook page with nearly 900 of those being video

INSTAGRAM

131 Million people had 916 Million interactions pertaining to the Rio Olympics

SNAPCHAT (UPDATED)

Nearly 35 Million Snapchatters consumed NBC-partnered coverage in the US, the majority of which were under age 35

2.2 Billion Snapswatched across NBC-partnered Live and Discover in the US, totaling over 230 million minutes of content consumed

GOOGLE/YOUTUBE

Early estimates found that more than 1 Billion minutes of Olympics content was watched on YouTube.

Nearly 70% of video views were by users were under age 35.

More than 70% of viewers watched from a mobile device.

NBC Sports saw a 7x increase in YouTube subscribers during the Games.

ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA STUDY CONDUCTED BY RESEARCH RESULTS FOR NBC

90% of Millennials who watch Olympic highlights on social media say they are adding to my enjoyment of the games.

77% say they are more engaged with these Summer Games than previous Olympics because there a lot of videos on social media to keep them interested.

72% say that compared to prior Olympics I am going on social media more often to stay connected to the Games.

STUDY BY SHAREABLEE FOR NBC (8/5-8/12)

Millennials who watched Olympic highlight clips on social media are more likely than those who did not watch on social media to watch primetime coverage on television or stream coverage in primetime

Millennials who watched Olympic highlights on social media that day
were significantly more likely to watch NBC’s primetime coverage on television that evening
(84% Oly SM video viewers watched Prime vs. 74% non-SM video viewers)

56% of Millennials who watched Olympic videos on social media that day streamed NBC Olympics’ coverage in primetime that evening vs. 19% who did not watch Olympic videos on social media that day

About 4 in 10 (37%) Millennials who watch Olympic highlights on social media say that it makes them more likely to watch NBC’s primetime coverage that evening (50% heavy Oly SM video viewers)

A similar number (39%) say they would have watched anyway (49% lighter Oly SM video viewers) while 15% of Olympic highlight video viewers say they are less likely to watch prime coverage on those days

NBC OLYMPICS’ SOCIAL ACCOUNTS

NBC Olympics ranked #1 out of 312 sports franchises and #1 out of the 800 Consumer Brands in terms of overall digital engagement from August 3-21 (Digital Engagement Ranking provided by ListenFirst).